Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Gave up (edwken). Just "gave" (first aorist active indicative of didwmi), but for the sea to give is to give up (effective aorist). Sea as well as land delivers its dead (all kinds of dead, good and bad). Swete notes that accidental deaths will not prevent any from appearing. Milligan is sure that the sea here means "the sea of the troubled and sinful world."
Death and Hades (o qanatov kai o aidhv). "An inseparable pair" (Swete) as in Revelation 1:18; Revelation 6:8; Revelation 20:14. So in Matthew 16:18 "the gates of Hades" means the power of death. Etymologically Hades is the unseen world where all who die are as opposed to this visible world, but in actual use Hades is sometimes treated as the abode of the unrighteous (Luke 16:23). Charles thinks that this is true here, though there is nothing to show it apart from the personification of death and Hades and the casting of both into the lake of fire in verse Revelation 20:14. Here again "each man" (ekastov) receives judgment according to his deeds (Matthew 16:27; 1 Corinthians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 2:6; Romans 14:12; 1 Peter 1:17; Revelation 2:23).
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Revelation 1:18
Revelation 3:18
Revelation 6:8
Revelation 11:18
Revelation 20:12
Revelation 21:1
Revelation 21:1
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